San Francisco VA Health Care System

The San Francisco VA Health Care System is a comprehensive network that provides health services to Veterans through the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) and six community-based outpatient clinics in Santa Rosa, Eureka, Ukiah, Clearlake, San Bruno and downtown San Francisco. It has a long history of conducting cutting-edge research, establishing innovative medical programs, and providing compassionate care to Veterans. SFVAMC has 124 operating beds and a 120-bed Community Living Center. There is a specialized homeless Veterans clinic in downtown San Francisco.

SFVAMC has several National Centers of Excellence in the areas of Epilepsy Treatment; Cardiac Surgery; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; HIV; and Renal Dialysis. It has many other nationally recognized programs including: the Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Center; the Hepatitis C Research and Education Center; the Mental Illness Research & Education Clinical Center; and the Western Pacemaker and AICD Surveillance Program. SFVAMC is designated as one of only five VA Centers of Excellence in Primary Care Education. It has also been selected as a Community Resource and Referral Center, one of only 12 locations designed to serve homeless and at-risk for homeless Veterans and their families. The Medical Center is the first VA to perform MRI-guided deep brain stimulation surgery and is one of only a few VA Medical Centers performing state-of-the-art transcatheter aortic valve replacement surgeries.

SFVAMC has the largest funded research program in the Veterans Health Administration with $79 million in research expenditures. The Medical Center is one of the few in the world equipped for studies using both whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy, and is the site of VA’s National Center for the Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases. Additionally, SFVAMC has established a unique partnership with the Department of Defense (DoD) to study the basic neuroscience and neuroimaging of combat-related brain and spinal cord injuries, PTSD and other neurological combat-related injuries and predictors of injuries of war fighters. DoD considers this program a national resource.

SFVAMC has been affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), School of Medicine for over 50 years. All physicians are jointly recruited by SFVAMC and UCSF School of Medicine.